North Dublin mob suspected to be behind four ATM raids

A criminal gang under investigation for one of two €50,000 cash-in-transit robberies yesterday is suspected of a spate of similar crimes, including an almost identical one earlier this year.

Gardai say they are investigating two gangs for the raids, at Charlestown Shopping Centre in Finglas at 11.30am and outside the Bank of Ireland in Tallaght minutes later.

In the Finglas robbery, a G4S security employee was about to enter a room behind an ATM to fill the machine when he was approached and confronted by a male, who grabbed the cash box from him and fled the scene.

The €50,000 robbery happened in the shopping centre, and gardai said a three-man gang was involved.

A car used as a getaway vehicle for the robbery was later found on fire at nearby North City Business Park.

The Herald can reveal that the suspects are a north Dublin mob who are also believed to be behind the theft of nearly €190,000 from Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in late January.

During that incident, two men armed with a handgun and hammer threatened to kill two security employees in an underground car park as they delivered money to an ATM.

The gang are also suspected of a robbery last December, when criminals used a fake cash-in-transit van to make off with more than €60,000 from a Dublin cash-and-carry before they crashed the vehicle and set it on fire.

The two criminals duped staff by pretending to be employees of G4S.

The incident happened on December 7 at the Merrywell Business Park in the Ballymount Industrial Estate.

One of the country's most prolific cash-in-transit robbery gangs, it is also suspected of the robbery of €50,000 at the same Finglas shopping centre in March that was almost a replica of yesterday's crime.

No one was injured in yesterday's incident and no firearm was produced.

Minutes later, in a separate incident at around 11.45am, raiders sprayed pepper spray in a G4S employee's face when they stole a cash box that contained up to €50,000 outside the Bank of Ireland in Tallaght.

The security employee was temporarily blinded.

At least two raiders were involved and escaped in a small silver car, which sped towards Dublin city centre.

A member of the public bravely tried to block the getaway vehicle by driving his van into its path. The raiders were forced to drive around it, damaging their own car in the process.

Senior sources revealed last night that a Tallaght gang is suspected of the crime.

The gang is also suspected of the robbery of a GSLS security van in Tallaght during the summer.

Local workers said they saw a man run from the van that was trying to block the raiders following yesterday's incident in Tallaght.

"He had his arms out in front of him, like he was trying to stop the car," said one witness.